Western Univesity
Department of History
Summer Evening 2015
History 2301E:
The United States of America: Colonial Period to the Present
Tuesdays and Thursdays: 6:00-9:00PM
Classroom:
Instructor: Dr. Timothy Compeau
Email: [email protected]
Office:
Office Hours: Tuesday 4:00-5:45
Course Summary:
History 2301E is an intensives survey of the history of the United States from pre-Columbian
times to the present. Emphasis will be given to the most important issues in American history,
with special consideration of the roles of race, gender, and class in the development of the United
States of America.
Required Texts:
Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty: An American History, 3rd ed. (New York, 2011).
John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History (New York: Penguin Press, 2005).
All other readings can be found on JSTOR, Sakai, on library reserve, or have their stable URLs
listed in the course summary below.
Learning Objectives:





identify and explain the significance of key events, people, and ideas in American
history.
connect events from the American past to current political and social issues.
apply the historical method to challenge erroneous assumptions of the past.
express ideas and arguments clearly and concisely both orally and in writing.
write and properly format an essay that uses primary and secondary evidence to support a
thesis statement.
1
Assignments and Grade Breakdown:
Quizzes: 10% (2.5% each)
Essay Proposal: 5%
Research Essay: 25%
Midterm: 20%
Participation: 15%
Final Exam: 25%
Written Assignments: All written assignments should be typed, double spaced with one inch
margins. ALL WRITTEN WORK MUST BE SUBMITTED IN ORDER TO PASS THE COURSE.
Plagiarism: "Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever
students take an idea, or a passage from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both
by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such as footnotes or
citations. Plagiarism is a major academic offence (see Scholastic Offence Policy in the Western
Academic Calendar.)" [www.uwo.ca/hand book/exam/crsout.pdf]
Plagiarism can result in a mark of zero for the assignment or more serious penalties. Students
should retain their notes until a final mark is provided.
“Scholastic offences are taken seriously and students are directed to read the appropriate policy,
specifically, the definition of what constitutes a Scholastic Offence, at the following Web site:
http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf .”
For Western's Accessibility Website, see www.accessibility.uwo.ca. Students will be notified by
e-mail in the event of a class cancellation or a disruption of services that will affect our
classroom.
Turnitin.com: In addition to submitting a hardcopy, the biography and social memory
assignments must be submitted electronically to the Turnitin plagiarism detection service.
Detailed instructions will be provided in class.
“All required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to the
commercial plagiarism detection software under license to the University for the detection of
plagiarism. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the
reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to
the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between The
University of Western Ontario and Turnitin.com (http://www.turnitin.com ).”
Quizzes: Fours brief quizzes will be given during class time. Quiz topics include: The
Geography of America (May 14), The Constitution (May 28), American Empire (June 25),
America Today (July 21).
2
Participation: Each class will include a discussion component. Students are expected to
complete the assigned readings and be ready to participate in discussions.
Essay Proposal (June 23): Students are required to submit an essay proposal (250 words). The
proposal should include research questions, tentative argument, and bibliography.
Essay (July 14): Students are required to write one essay on a topic of their choice. Essays must
be typed and should be approximately 10 pages in length (12 pt., double spaced, 1 inch margins).
Examinations: There will be a midterm exam in class (June 11) and a final exam during the
July exam period. Both will be three hours in length, and will focus on material covered in the
preceding section. Further details will be discussed in class.
Class Schedule
Tuesday, May 5: Introduction. Old Worlds
The Geography of America. Pre-Columbian America.
The European Expansion, 1453-1607
Readings: Foner, Ch. 1.
Thursday, May 7: Colonial Encounters in the Chesapeake
Jamestown and the Powhatan Confederacy.
Servants, Slaves, and Masters
Readings: Foner, Ch. 2.
Tuesday, May 12: New England, 1620-1700
The Pilgrims: Puritan Society and Culture
Richard Godbeer, The Devil’s Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England, (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1992) Chapter 6 (pages 179-222).
Thursday, May 14: Life in the First British Empire, 1700-1754
Quiz # 1: The Geography of America
The Great Awakening.
Imperial Governance, Imperial Rivals
Foner, Ch. 3
3
Tuesday, May 19: The Seven Years’ War and Imperial Expansion
The Seven Years War.
British North America, 1763-1774
Foner, Ch. 4.
Thursday, May 21: The American Revolution
The Idea of Revolution and the American War of Independence
Foner, Ch. 5.
Edmund S. Morgan, “Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox.” The Journal of American
History, Vol. 59, No. 1 (June 1972): 5-29.
Tuesday, May 26: The New Republic
The Constitution, Political Culture.
Foner, Ch. 5, 6.
Thursday, May 28: The Revolution of 1800 to the Era of Good Feelings
Quiz 2: The American Constitution
Jefferson, International Relations, Expansion.
Foner, Ch. 7, 8
Tuesday, June 2: Jacksonian America
Jacksonian democracy and its limits.
Ch. 9, 10.
Joanne B. Freeman, “Dueling as Politics: Reinterpreting the Burr-Hamilton Duel,” The William
and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Apr., 1996): 289-318.
Thursday, June 4: Slavery, Abolition and Manifest Destiny
The Slave System of the Old South and the Abolition Movement.
Foner, Ch. 11, 12
Tuesday, June 9: The Civil War
Foner, Ch. 12, 13
4
Thursday, June 11: Midterm Exam
Tuesday, June 16: The Lost Cause and Reconstruction
Foner, Ch. 15
Thursday, June, 18: Westward Expansion
Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” The Frontier
in American History,
http://www.learner.org/workshops/primarysources/corporations/docs/turner.html
Tuesday, June 23: The Gilded Age
Essay Proposals Due
Foner, Ch. 16.
Edward Slavishak, “Working-Class Muscle: Homestead and Bodily Disorder in the Gilded Age”
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Oct., 2004): 339-368.
Thursday, June 25: The American Empire and Progressivism
Quiz # 3: The American Empire
Foner, Ch. 17, 18.
Tuesday, June 30: WWI and the Roaring Twenties
Foner, Ch. 19
The Flapper in American Culture. Selected Primary sources from the Library of Congress.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/flapper.html
Thursday, July 2: The Great Depression
No readings.
Tuesday, July 7: World War II
Foner, Ch. 22
J. Samuel Walker “Recent Literature on Truman’s Atomic Bomb Decision: A Search for Middle
Ground.” Diplomatic History, Vol. 29, Issue 2, (April 2005): 311–334.
5
Thursday, July 9: The Cold War and American Culture
Foner, Ch. 23, 24
Gaddis, chapters 1-3.
Tuesday, July 14: The 1960s
Research Essay Due
Foner, Ch. 25
Gaddis, Ch. 4
Thursday, July 16: Late 20th Century America
Foner, Ch. 26
Gaddis, 5-7.
Tuesday, July 21: 1990s to the Present
Quiz # 4: America Today
Foner, Ch, 27, 28.
Thursday, July 23: Review
6